In this circuit, a supercapacitor is charged from it's fully uncharged state up to a full charge voltage of 28V. This wide output voltage range is accomplished using a SEPIC topology. The built in input current limit of the LT3956 simplifies the design.
The LT3956 is a DC/DC converter designed to operate as a constant-current source and constant-voltage regulator. It is ideally suited for driving high current LEDs. It features an internal low side N-channel power MOSFET rated for 84V at 3.3A and driven from an internal regulated 7.15V supply. The fixed frequency, current-mode architecture results in stable operation over a wide range of supply and output voltages. A ground referenced voltage FB pin serves as the input for several LED protection features, and also makes it possible for the converter to operate as a constant-voltage source. A frequency adjust pin allows the user to program the frequency from 100kHz to 1MHz to optimize efficiency, performance or external component size.